Red Sox bullpen spoils some good Rice

APOakland's Rajai Davis is congratulated after scoring the go-ahead run in the 11th inning of the A's 9-8, extra-innings win over the Red Sox.

For the record: Yes, a horrible game leads to a horrible blog entry headline.

That's all I got, considering Jonathan Papelbon and Co. apparently decided that winning wasn't all that important on the day Jim Rice's No. 14 was retired by the Red Sox, an emotional moment that featured visits by fellow legends such as Dwight Evans and Fred Lynn.

Sounds like a great night for a win, right? Not when you're the Red Sox bullpen, which threw its 24-inning scoreless inning streak out the window in order to allow the Oakland A's to score in the seventh (one run off Ramon Ramirez), the eighth (one run off Hideki Okajima), the ninth (three runs off Papelbon) and the 11th (two runs off Manny Delcarmen). Now that's consistency.

But let's spread the blame fairly, here. Nick Green, he of the cartoon cannon arm, managed to commit two throwing errors in the ninth inning, allowing the A's to tie the game after they trailed 7-4 coming into the ninth and 7-5 when the Greenage (a word combination of Green and carnage) started.

APJim Rice waves to fans at Fenway Park last night as he is congratulated for having his number retired Tuesday and being enshrined in the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

It's all unfortunate, because it's hard to not grin when listening to Jim Rice talk about finally making the Hall of Fame and having his number retired in the same week. The latest stroke of goodness was hearing him credit dear ol' Johnny Pesky for helping him to succeed last night. That's a far cry from his reputation for being moody, which NESN explores here to great effect.

My favorite piece of the NESN article is actually a comment from Red Sox scribe Nick Cafardo, who sets things up this way:

"Rice was one of the most standup players I ever covered," said Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo. "If he messed up, he was always standing at his locker waiting for reporters so he could lay complete blame for the loss on himself. If he went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs, he was nowhere to be found, feeling it was his responsibility to lead the team to a win.

"He hated talking about teammates. He was the consummate captain in that he was a loyal teammate who helped young guys blend in and adapt to their new surroundings. He helped Ellis Burks tremendously with dealing with being black in Boston. He was a menacing hitter, and at times, he had a menacing look on his face. I once wrote, 'Rice could not be approached for comment.'"